{"id":641479,"date":"2026-10-26T04:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641479\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T04:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:24:14","slug":"kimi-antonelli-looks-forward-to-drivers-title-after-victory-in-us-grand-prix-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641479\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli looks forward to drivers\u2019 title after victory in US Grand Prix | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Kimi Antonelli has acknowledged the Formula One world championship is within his grasp after the Italian took a dominant victory at the US Grand Prix which has put him just two points away from clinching his first title at the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Antonelli beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc into second place and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into third. With his title rivals George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finishing eighth and fourth respectively, Antonelli will take the title if he finishes ninth or better in Mexico City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The 20-year-old, who stands to become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/oct\/23\/kimi-antonelli-f1-champion-elect\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1\u2019s youngest champion<\/a>, was jubilant as he crossed the line at the Circuit of the Americas. \u201cYeah! That\u2019s how we do it,\u201d he exclaimed to his engineer Peter Bonnington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cAnother small step,\u201d the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, told Antonelli over the radio after the victory. \u201cAnother small step.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quick GuideHow the title races standShow<\/p>\n<p>Drivers&#8217; standings<\/p>\n<p>1 Kimi Antonelli \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Mercedes 365pts<br \/>2 George Russell \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Mercedes 242<br \/>3 Lewis Hamilton \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Ferrari 241<br \/>4 Max Verstappen \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 Red Bull 236<br \/>5 Charles Leclerc \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde8 Ferrari 233<br \/>6 Lando Norris \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 McLaren 211<br \/>7 Oscar Piastri \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa McLaren 144<br \/>8 Isack Hadjar \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Red Bull 105<br \/>9 Liam Lawson \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddff Racing Bulls 77<br \/>10 Pierre Gasly \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine 42<br \/>11 Arvid Lindblad \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Racing Bulls 38<br \/>12 Franco Colapinto \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine 27<br \/>13 Oliver Bearman \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Haas 23<br \/>14 Nico H\u00fclkenberg \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Audi 13<br \/>15 Gabriel Bortoleto \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 Audi 10<br \/>16 Esteban Ocon \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Haas 7<br \/>17 Fernando Alonso \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Aston Martin 7<br \/>18 Carlos Sainz \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Williams 7<br \/>19 Alexander Albon \ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\udded Williams 5<br \/>20 Yuki Tsunoda \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5 Racing Bulls 1<\/p>\n<p>Yet to score:<br \/>Lance Stroll \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Aston Martin <br \/>Valtteri Bottas \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee Cadillac <br \/>Sergio P\u00e9rez \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddfd Cadillac <\/p>\n<p>Constructors&#8217; standings<\/p>\n<p>1 Mercedes \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea 607pts<br \/>2 Ferrari \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 474<br \/>3 Red Bull \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf9 355<br \/>4 McLaren \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 355<br \/>5 Racing Bulls \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 102<br \/>6 Alpine \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 69<br \/>7 Haas \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 30<br \/>8 Audi \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea 23<br \/>9 Williams \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 12<br \/>10 Aston Martin \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 7<br \/>11 Cadillac \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 0<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">With Mercedes having worked hard to iron out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/oct\/09\/f1-wolff-tells-critics-watch-teletubbies-or-mickey-mouse-defends-mercedes-strategy\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">issues with their recent upgrades<\/a> to the car, the victory was important to the team, who pulled off a coup in opting for a one-stop strategy which paid off handsomely for their world champion-elect driver. Antonelli paid tribute to his team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe\u2019re very close [to the title], hopefully we can clinch it soon,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a result we needed, to be fair, the whole team deserved it all this time \u2013 working to bring this new package and finally seeing the result is very pleasant. It was a perfect execution of strategy to call the one stop. Today was a great team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">This view was echoed by the Mercedes deputy team principal, Bradley Lord. \u201cIt felt like everyone was getting a bit excited but all Kimi could do today is go out and win,\u201d he said. \u201cAmazing job by everyone on the pit wall and the strategists back at base. What a drive, what a win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-9\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to The Recap<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-djbwnz\">The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792988654_79_1235.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-gx9601\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-9\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">However Verstappen, whose Red Bull team opted for a two-stop strategy, was far from enamoured with his afternoon and a car that was suffering from problems. \u201cYeah, that was terrible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pace, the wrong tyre, shit pit stop, shit engine braking. Nothing worked.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has acknowledged the Formula One world championship is within his grasp after the Italian took a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-641479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}